Development of electrocatalysts for the electroreduction of CO2 and photo-electrooxidation of water: investigation of the reaction products by on-line mass spectrometry

Abstract

The increase of the world demand for energy and the depletion of fossil fuels in conjunction with the global warming crisis, has forced researches aiming at obtaining a new source of energy free of environmental damage, sustainable and with low cost. The development of electrochemical devices that mimic natural photosynthesis for the synthesis of high value-added products, the so-called artificial photosynthesis, is one of the most important subject of research nowdays. Thus, it becomes important to develop active and stable electrocatalysts for the CO2 electroreduction and for water photo-electro-oxidation. Considering this scenario, the main objective of this research project is the synthesis and activity analysis, stability and selectivity of nanostructured electrocatalysts, composed of Cu and ZnO for CO2 electro-reduction (electrocatalysis), in neutral medium, and based on WO3 for water photo-electro-oxidation (photo-electrocatalysis) in acid medium, using a sunlight simulator as an energy source. Also, it will be considered simple organic molecules photo-electro-oxidation such as formic acid and ethanol. The electrocatalyst will be synthesized in the laboratory and will be characterized by techniques involving hydrolysis, chemical reduction and thermal treatment. The electrochemical activity and selectivity will be studied by electrochemical techniques coupled with on-line DEMS (Differential Electrochemical Mass Spectrometry) experiments using a stagnant and flowing electrolyte configuration. The correlations between composition/structure of the nanoparticles with the distribution of the reaction products will be determined and discussed as the final aim of this project. (AU)